Plain Baati or saada baati falls into the category of traditional Rajasthani food. It can be cooked very easily without much prior preparation. You just need three or six bricks to make your Choolha (stove), if you don’t have permanent one. Bring some dry uple (made from cow dung) for fire, little salt, wheat flour, water and one vessel to knead the dough. That’s it……..
This is the way migrants from Rajasthan cook baati when there is no rain in their village and they are searching for work in different cities, and eating it with raw onion.
But now this traditional food has taken place in restaurants and hotels with many different types of varieties.
And of course, now you get a separate baati oven in the market.
Here we will be preparing simple wheat flour baati with ajwain (carom seeds) flavour, but not in baati oven, because I don’t have one. I baked baati in my microwave on convection mode and Manish and Apoorva loved them.
INGREDIENTS :
Wheat flour 1+1/2 cup
Salt 3/4 tsp
Desi ghee (melted) 3 tbsp
Ajwain (carom seeds) 1tsp
Baking powder 1/4 tsp
Baking soda 1/4 tsp
Water to knead the dough (at room temperature) as per requirement
Melted desi ghee 1 cup
Method :
Take wheat flour, salt, ghee, ajwain and baking powder in a bowl and mix everything. Take a mix of half milk and half water, but it is optional. You can make do with just water.
Prepare dough by mixing everything .
Dough should be harder than chappati dough…but softer than poori dough. Prepare equal size of balls from this dough and press them slightly between your palms. And with your finger tip gently press in between (as you can see in the pic, impression on baati).
You can bake them on gas oven as well as in microwave on convection mode.
If you are doing on gas oven, keep changing their posotions at regular intervals (by turning upside down).
Initially keep the flame on full for 4-5 minutes…so that baatis will puff up a little, then put the flame on medium or sim….so that baatis are nicely roasted from inside too.
Once they are done….keep ready melted ghee in a big bowl and put all hot baatis in that.
You can leave baatis as it is or after 5/7 minutes take them out and serve when they are hot.
For microwave convection mode, give a brush up with ghee. Preheat oven on 200 degrees. Bake for almost 40 /45 minutes or until baatis start becoming light brown in colour. Change the position of baati in between and again give a brush up with ghee and continue baking. Once they are done, follow the same process of dipping them in melted ghee and serve hot with any daal of your choice.
Don’t blame me if you finish two or three baatis without daal itself because they look so inviting dipped in hot desi ghee!
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